I Became a Police Officer in a Superhero Genre

Dokkaebi’s sudden singling out. The resulting mess.

The reporters are somehow aware of what happened inside the tent and are speculating about what Dokkaebi demanded and what his motives are, making a fuss with their brain theories,

while the high-ranking officials, only regaining their senses after Dokkaebi disappeared, are raging about why that bastard wasn’t arrested immediately.

And in the middle of this chaotic mess, I was thrown in alone and hoped for a moment that I might be forgotten and not dragged into City Hall, but-

Is it because dreams are fleeting that they’re called dreams?

“Be careful. All conversations must follow our words through the earpiece, and once inside, what you need to pay most attention to is not provoking the suspect wearing the mask.”

The suit-wearing negotiator said as he attached a microphone to my clothes.

Knowing that being precisely targeted meant being forgotten was just a dream, I nodded, accepting my fate.

From the police superintendent to the high-ranking officials, their gazes were gathering on me to the point where I was getting an upset stomach,
but my brain was struggling to figure out why Dokkaebi had singled me out to come into City Hall.

Why did he single me out? If we assume that Dokkaebi called New Hope, as in the novel, because he wants to support her as she’s a good person in his view, then why me?

This story is an episode showing Dokkaebi’s appearance, and amid New Hope, who was singled out along with Dokkaebi’s appearance, being suspected by the police of being involved,

it shows the mastermind Sai, who is the only one who believes in the protagonist and helps her from behind, pretending to be the protagonist’s helper while secretly plotting.

But that development that should have happened has been completely twisted by the selection of my existence. I really don’t understand. What did he see in me to single me out?

Although I’m the deputy chief of the Special Investigation Team, if an ordinary person sees me, they’d just think I’m a police officer, right? Who would care about the title unless it’s someone high up like the commissioner?

Then did I commit a crime or something? No, that’s not it either.
It’s not that I’m overflowing with integrity and conscience, but there have been many bastards from my previous mentor onwards who make it hard to believe they’re wearing a police uniform, and after suffering from those bastards, I naturally didn’t touch that kind of thing at all.

At most, jaywalking or excessive suppression of criminals, and so on?

…Is this the problem?

While continuing to ponder whether I was someone who should be judged by Dokkaebi’s standards as I knew from the novel, looking back on my life so far, I realized this pondering was meaningless.

If I were really a villain by Dokkaebi’s standards, he wouldn’t have called me so kindly like this, but would have cracked my head open with a danso while I was walking on the street at night.

Although the incident where Dokkaebi becomes widely known is this mayor hostage incident, if he really wanted to judge me, he wouldn’t need to call me like this, as there had been incidents reported here and there of corrupt police officers or politicians having their heads smashed recently.

Then why me? The situation was becoming more and more questionable, but time didn’t give an answer and just vaguely flowed, and I checked the gun hidden under my clothes along with the bulletproof vest and looked outside.

The black wall was still blocking City Hall, and the wall of people consisting of soldiers, police, and reporters was also solid.

I looked at that wall for a moment, then put a cigarette in my mouth, wondering when New Hope would arrive. Beside me, Sai was approaching with a slightly deflated smile.

The way his eyes rolled around gave the impression that he was a bit bewildered by the sudden large-scale incident. Or he might be acting that way.

“So this is where you were, Deputy Chief. Are you… alright?”

“Yeah.”

“This incident is really blowing up. That crazy bastard. Why on earth did he call for you, Deputy Chief? Is he trying to turn himself in?”

“That would be nice.”

Sai’s eyes were fixed on City Hall, and his hair was slowly and very subtly shaking left and right, as if he was contemplating something.

Is Sai also interested in the existence of such a powerful ability user and curious about Dokkaebi’s identity?

Considering that the reason this final boss creates superpower users is not only for interest but also with the goal of finding someone as powerful as himself, it seems quite reasonable.
Or maybe not.

“- But will that guy come? That hero girl?”
Suddenly, Sai asked with doubt, wondering if that kid would really come, and I sighed and answered.

“She’ll come.”

That kid will come.

If there’s one thing I can be sure of after directly meeting and talking with her, it’s that that kid is such a sucker that it wouldn’t be strange if her organs were harvested somewhere if she didn’t have superpowers.

You know how there’s a personality that’s the opposite of being good at work? You can see her sucker level in the fact that she has such superpowers but doesn’t use them recklessly and uses them to save people,

but when you watch from the side, the bastards who are supposed to be her friends are all bastards trying to take advantage of people, and even though she knows it all, she still forgives them, it’s enough to give you a headache.

They say a hero can’t be a person who calculates gains and losses, but she’s really serious.

I mean, she’s about to be late for her own exam, but she helps a lost child and gets late, and when she says she has no money, I introduce her to a part-time job, but she’s late because she helps with an incident on her way to the interview.

How will such a person, who makes me worry about how she’ll make a living later, stay still when a hostage situation like this is happening?

Even if things don’t unfold according to the original story, given Mina’s personality as I’ve seen, she will definitely come here.

Putting aside the fact that she’ll screw things up, she’ll definitely come.

The moment I thought this, Sai’s gaze fixed on one spot. Between the forest of buildings, in the sky noisy with helicopters and drones, something black was visible.

Soon, it quickly approached where I was, and I could identify the identity of the black thing that had been crossing the forest of buildings.

“You were here. Sorry I’m late. Detective. I’ve just arrived.”

“New Hope…”

As soon as New Hope appeared, the surroundings instantly became noisy. Reporters shouted that they were requesting interviews, and police officers showed displeasure at the appearance of the masked vigilante.

An entrance and reaction as if to show who the protagonist of this world is. New Hope, ignoring such reactions from the surroundings,

approached me, who was standing alone in the middle of this commotion, with a bright face reminiscent of a large puppy, smiling as if glad to see me, but only for a moment.

New Hope, seeing the wound on my head, expressed perfectly with her face how her emotions were cooling down and said,

“So, as soon as we go in, we just need to beat down this Dokkaebi guy, right?”

“No.”

There are hostages, you’ll screw everything up if you do that, fuck. New Hope suddenly exuding a mood of displeasure. Why does she seem to have gotten dumber than what I saw in the original novel?

I felt a sense of discomfort at this strange behavior, but I, aspiring to be a regular police officer 1 beyond the Special Investigation Team, kept my mouth shut and pretended not to notice.

What kind of city is Seoul in this world? It’s a city where special crimes never cease due to superpower users appearing and rampaging every day.

Yet the corruption of the police and politicians is at a level where even flies wouldn’t touch it. Because it’s such a city, it wasn’t strange for someone like Dokkaebi to appear.

That’s why, according to the novel, even New Hope had various thoughts about Dokkaebi’s appearance.

Is her method right? Can she stop the crimes of politicians?

Is the justice people talk about right? The catalyst for such contemplation was said to be Dokkaebi’s appearance, but-

Of course, just because it made her think doesn’t mean she came to dislike the opponent.

Because Dokkaebi never harms civilians in any case and tries to realize justice in his own way, New Hope also respects him to some extent according to the novel, but-

“First, when we go in, how about if I draw his attention and you shoot him from behind, Detective?”

“Are we gangsters?”

Seeing New Hope burning with an abnormal level of hostility, I wondered if this girl had eaten something wrong.

Dry air. The black wall that had been surrounding City Hall had split open, creating a path just wide enough for New Hope and me to enter,

but as we moved forward to talk as per Dokkaebi’s request, the things New Hope was saying were about several hundred million light-years away from peaceful dialogue.

Wait a minute- This wasn’t the reaction in the novel, I think…

It was quite strange, but by now I was slowly forgetting the detailed contents of the novel, and there had already been several developments different from what I remembered, so I brushed this off thinking maybe she was just in a bad mood today.

What I need to focus on now is what to do after entering that City Hall.

Since it’s different from the story development I know, there’s a possibility that Dokkaebi is also different from the being I know, which means I can’t be sure of the safety of the hostages inside.

I learned how to deal with hostage situations at the police academy, but when the opponent is not just someone holding a knife or a bomb, but a supervillain wielding superpowers, it’s unrealistic to subdue them and rescue the hostages.

What we can do is probably to buy time by talking with Dokkaebi and pretending to meet his demands, while simultaneously sending internal information through the earpiece and finding a way to remove that wall, then receiving support from external forces? But how?

… Whatever the purpose, in the worst case, it seems we’ll have to fight Dokkaebi anyway. I’m starting to think it might be better to do as New Hope said.

I rub my chin and check the gun in my pocket. All the chambers are loaded with live ammunition, but there’s no way a mere gun can do anything against a superpower user, especially one of the strongest in the world setting like Dokkaebi.

So when New Hope and Dokkaebi start fighting – I should focus on rescuing the hostages first.

The number of people currently held hostage in City Hall, including staff, is over 60 including employees and security personnel… and there are two buildings.

Dokkaebi, being a superpower user, is strong enough to control this number of people alone, so if I try to rescue the hostages-

Okay, I have to admit it. Today, I will follow in the footsteps of my colleagues who have been beaten by a supervillain and still haven’t woken up.

They say people always repeat the same regrets. I seem to have repeated “If I had known this would happen-” several times recently, but I’ll say it again.

If I had known this would happen, I should have left the Special Investigation Team even if I had to shit on the floor. No, I should have just taken off the police uniform and clung to a lifeline.

In the first place, without retirement pay and pension, being a police officer is worse than a convenience store part-time job, so wouldn’t it be better to think of it as opening a chicken restaurant earlier?

It’s because human greed never ends that we suffer and experience pain, if we let go of all greed, we would become comfortable.

If I survive and return from this, I must open a chicken restaurant. As I was thinking this, New Hope and I had arrived at the entrance of City Hall.
Black objects were blocking the entrance to City Hall, but as we arrived, the black objects slowly began to crumble. As if permitting our entry.

‘[I’ll tell you again. You must negotiate through us, and you must not say anything that might provoke the suspect.]’

“I understand.”

‘[We’ll inform you in real-time about what to be careful of after hearing the other party’s words, so relax. Don’t forget that rescuing the hostages is the top priority.]’

I said I understand.

I furrowed my brow at the negotiator’s voice coming through the earpiece. I’m not sure if they’re trying to relax me or irritate me.

Anyway, as I was moving forward, listening to what the negotiator was saying, I felt New Hope’s gaze, who was quietly following beside me, and turned my gaze.

Even though our eyes met, New Hope’s gaze was fixed on the wound on my head, and worry was dripping from her eyes as if a child had seen someone bleeding profusely.

“Are you alright, Detective? I heard you were just discharged from the hospital. But moving directly for such an… incident isn’t good for your body. Rather, if I were to go alone-”

“What do you mean alone? That guy called for me too. So I have to go. And I know how to take care of my own body, so I’m fine. This much will heal with a band-aid.”

“But…”

But what? I lightly hit New Hope’s back to stop her from spouting any more nonsense. I might just be a middle-aged man, but I’m not at a level where I need to be worried about by a kid like this.

And thanks for deliberately making me recall the fact that I was dragged out of the hospital and caught up in this incident, which I was trying not to think about.

As I was holding back my complaints, the black object completely disappeared. New Hope and I briefly made eye contact and slowly opened the door,

and as we crossed the threshold, along with the noise of communication being cut off in the earpiece, something strange appeared before our eyes. A peculiar monster with long white fur was baring its fangs in what appeared to be a forest.

A chilling monster that didn’t seem to have been born naturally. Its visual was such that even animal protection groups would run away in disgust, seemingly impossible to empathize with or control.

Okay, this is definitely not the original plot. In the original novel, it started with Dokkaebi warmly welcoming New Hope when she arrived at City Hall, but this isn’t warm, it’s trying to skin us alive.

As if proving my thoughts, the monsters immediately charged at us as soon as they spotted us. I panicked and drew my gun to counterattack, but faster than that, New Hope rushed at those monsters.

“Hup!”

Thwack!

Along with what seemed to be New Hope’s shout, a black afterimage rushed in front of me, and with a “pop!” sound, two monsters burst like water balloons.

A miracle of the afterimage moving faster than sound. It was a frightening level of speed, impossible to even imagine how quickly she attacked, and it was a sight that made you understand, whether you liked it or not, why this girl is called a ‘super’ hero.

Even though I’ve seen it several times, she’s really amazing. I put the gun I had drawn back into its holster with admiration, and New Hope smiled brightly at my admiration, but then frowned as if feeling something strange and said,

“… I can’t feel my hands. It’s strange. I definitely attacked, but it feels like I hit the air…”

… Strange, she says. It’s certainly strange. We entered Seoul City Hall’s main building, but suddenly seeing a forest and such monsters appearing doesn’t make sense common-sensically.

This is probably an illusion created by Dokkaebi’s ability, magic. Given the characteristics of Dokkaebi’s magic, the illusion itself doesn’t have killing power.

Judging by the fact that he didn’t use the method of hiding weapons or something in the illusion, which is a technique he usually uses when attacking people, he probably didn’t intend to kill, but-

But that’s something only someone like me would know, from an unknowing person’s perspective, he called us here and suddenly attacked, isn’t this not a conversation but a declaration of war? What is Dokkaebi thinking?

“- Splendid! Truly magnificent! An attack so fast that even sound is a step behind! So this is indeed the real New Hope!”

Just as I was wondering, a voice was heard from behind. Looking back, I saw a peculiar man sitting in an elegantly designed pavilion, waving a fan.

The villain Dokkaebi. Dokkaebi, wearing the goblin mask that is the source of his alias and wrapped in white hemp clothes, spread his hands as if welcoming New Hope and me.

“Welcome. Miss New Hope. Mr. Kim. I am Dokkaebi. I sincerely thank you for responding to this invitation.”

“…”

New Hope only clenched her fist with a cold face at Dokkaebi’s greeting. Yeah, kindness is a luxury to a bastard who suddenly pulls out a knife when you go after being invited.

I left the task of keeping an eye on Dokkaebi to New Hope and rolled my eyes at the situation where no hostages were visible at all.

If those two fight now, when we can’t even confirm the location of the hostages due to Dokkaebi’s ability, who knows how much damage there will be.

When superpower users fight each other, ordinary people die far too easily. It was a miracle that only my head was cracked when I got caught up in the fight between Sikgwi and New Hope before, but will such a miracle happen again?

Probably not.

“Not yet.”

“- Okay.”

Fortunately, New Hope suppressed her momentum at my words. Looking at New Hope and me like this, Dokkaebi let out a hoarse laugh that matched his old-fashioned alias.

“My, my. I apologize. I committed a great rudeness due to my mischievous desire to confirm if you were really New Hope. However, the monster just now was merely an illusion without substance, so there was no danger of injury even in the worst case.”

“Moreover, I came here to ensure that corrupt officials who have committed crimes are judged, not to kill innocent citizens, so there’s no need to look around warily like that.

The reason I called both of you is simply because I wanted to have a conversation, and in addition to being a fan of the famous hero Miss New Hope, I was a bit greedy.”

“Uh, what?”

Dokkaebi raised both hands as if saying he had no intention to fight. New Hope’s face contorted at the word ‘fan’, but
I still couldn’t understand why he had called me.
If he’s a fan of New Hope, why me? As I thought this and stared intently at Dokkaebi’s mask,

Dokkaebi opened the fan he was holding with a snap loud enough to hear and kindly told me the reason he had sought me out.

“Don’t look at me as if you don’t understand. The reason I called you, Mr. Kim, is simple. I thought there was no one more suitable than you when it comes to judging corrupt officials by law here.”

“Who? Me? Why?”

In this world, while most police officers are corrupt humans, there are also many police officers who are full of a sense of justice that can’t be compared to me. But why me?

Especially in the Special Investigation Team, there are people gathered who are full of a sense of justice.
Even the leader, whose conscience seems to have been stripped along with his hair, is a ‘relatively’ clean human full of an unwavering sense of justice without corruption by this world’s standards. Of course, ‘relatively’.

No, let’s exclude the leader after all. Yeah.

Anyway, if you want to pursue corrupt politicians, wouldn’t it be better to find another justice-filled police officer in the Special Investigation Team rather than me? Why specifically me?

“Haven’t you already proven it? That you’re perfect for this kind of thing.”

Dokkaebi answered my question like that while waving his hand. Then, a piece of paper appeared out of thin air and fell onto my hand,

and that paper was none other than a collection of small printouts of news articles making a big fuss about a congressman’s child being arrested on murder charges, along with revelations of corruption by politicians.

Although there’s no mention of me, the contents of my life’s biggest mistake are written all over this B4 paper.

Why is he showing me this? The moment I wondered, I realized. A police officer who dug into politicians’ corruption. If someone claiming to move for social justice saw this, they would surely love it.

Yeah, fuck, digging my own life’s grave is the way to go. I tore that paper to shreds with all my might.